Remember when games were tough? Return to the Golden Age of arcades with an all-NEW hardcore action experience that pulls no punches. Volgarr the Viking possesses all the hallmarks of the true classics - simple controls, high challenge, and meticulous design - combined with hand-made pixel animation, an epic soundtrack, and buckets of...

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About This Game

Remember when games were tough? Return to the Golden Age of arcades with an all-NEW hardcore action experience that pulls no punches. Volgarr the Viking possesses all the hallmarks of the true classics - simple controls, high challenge, and meticulous design - combined with hand-made pixel animation, an epic soundtrack, and buckets of blood. Flex your gaming muscles and step into the arena with Volgarr the Viking. We dare you.

+ The developers intentions were to create a retro 2D action game and in many regards succeeded wonderfully. This game is easy to learn but hard to master.

+ Great controls

+ The game is hard only because it requires memorization of the level and enemy patterns to succeed at the game. With only 6 levels each only taking around 10 minutes to complete...IF you know what you're doing. If you are playing for your first time then expect each level to take roughly over an hour to complete.

+ Only one checkpoint per level. (This is an old school 2d action game after all!)

+ The game has a normal path and a hard path to complete. You can only unlock the hard path by successfully collecting treasure chests throughout the level without getting hit.

+Three different endings depending on which path you took.

+ Great sound and music

The Bad:

- Warning! may cause stress, frustration, and other bad feelings.

Conclusion

A game like this is difficult to review in modern times because the developers intention was to create a game a few decades earlier. This game borrows heavily from Ghosts n' Goblins. It was "refreshing" to play an old school game, it makes you realize just how much easier games have come.

The first thing that catches your attention is the old-school feel. The player controls a Viking that must fight his way through an army of monsters. By the way that the game looks and plays, it has a style similar to Taito’s Rastan, a classic from 1987.

One thing that makes traveling through the levels more interesting is that your weapons are for more than just combat. For ranged combat, you have a spear to attack from a safe distance. However, it is also useful for navigation. If there is a wall that is too tall to jump over, throwing a powered-up spear will cause it to stick to the wall acting as a ledge. By making the weapons multifaceted, it makes for some well-designed platforming.

Of course, the combat is the real draw of the game. With the simple and tight controls, fighting is as easy as it was back in the 8-bit days. As for the fighting, the action is as varied as the environments. In one stages, you are dodging spears while sliding down slopes. In another, you are fending off mermen while riding on a raft. With the action constantly changing, it makes you want to continue progressing throughout the game.

One problem about this progressing is that it is too generous with progressing. If your character dies, you lose half your treasure and return to the latest checkpoint. Otherwise, the game does not hurt you. With unlimited lives and saved progress, it makes finishing too easy. Having either is good, but having both takes away from the old-school feeling that the game was going for. In order to make the game play like it should, the player should stick to a lives cap. Otherwise, it is possible to finish in a single day.

Even though the combat is good, the enemies, while interesting, are not as deep as the combat. The stages have its own enemies to make each location visually interesting. The problem with this is that there are only a few enemy types in each stage. In most cases, it is only a palette swap to turn the same enemy into a new one. Once you see the first enemy, expect to see it repeat constantly until reaching the boss. This might have been acceptable in the 80s and 90s, but nowadays, more variety is expected.

I have just completed the game twice and currently I'm going for the A ending. This game is incredible. It might be a bit discouraging because the difficulty tends to ramp up quickly. Especially the first and second world are good examples of this. But as challenging the game is, it is even more rewarding.

I love the feeling of flawlessly beating a boss which at first I couldn't even reach without dying 50 times. That's the beauty of the game. It rewards you by showing how you slowly got better. There's little to no randomness or luck to the game. Every single time you get hit it's your own fault, and if you manage to overcome a situation without getting hit, it's all thanks to you: the player.

As you progress farther and farther in the game the areas you already cleared before become a breeze and you can easily jump, roll and slash through hordes of enemies that you used to have trouble with. I never felt a situation or enemy was particularly unfair. Got hit by an arrow? Duck faster next time! Fell into a pit? Time your jumps better! Like I explained before, the hazards in every world won't change, your skill will. Greatly.

If anyone who reads this is having a hard time completing the game, or heck, even the first world. I'll tell them: Keep going! it is definitely worth it.

Manly game for men. Challenging old school action platformer. Don't expect a cakewalk.

Features two different playthroughs with Path of the Crystal and Path of the Valkyrie. Game has 6 worlds and each world except the first one has 2 different versions. Path of the Crystal versions are normal/casual (by no means does this imply that those levels are easy) where you have unlimited lives, while Path of the Valkyrie ones are not necessarily harder in their design, just that the full playthrough on those is more hardcore as your lives are limited.

Old school controlls. Doesn't require a controller imo, only 2 buttons + arrows keys are involved and you can't really control the jump once commited.

Although some weak enemies respawn at a few set locations in each level, the majority of the enemies are completely predictable, appearing in the same locations and behaving the same way every time. This makes the game feel more like a puzzle-platformer to me. "Solving" levels requires figuring out what sequence of jumps, spears, and sword attacks to use, and remembering the enemy placement and patterns. Some reflexes and good timing are required, but learning the levels is the most important thing.

Some people complain about the fixed jumping. Don't listen to them. The implementation of the "Double Jump" makes the mechanic very flexible and versatile. You can initiate a double jump at any point in the ark, and in any direction, giving the player ample control. It all feels very natural and intuitive.

If you get stuck, keep persevering and experimenting with different approaches. Eventually you'll discover a viable strategy! I recommend NOT watching a walkthrough or guide before solving the levels for yourself, since that's where most of the satisfaction comes from. After you've beaten a level, then you can watch other people's solutions to help streamline your play.

You don't know what you are doing, sadly you die at the hands of the second enemy you encountered.

Restart

This time you think you know what you are doing, but yet again you ended up dying at the same spot you scrub.

Restart

You got past the point you died before, but you died again 2 feet from the previous spot.

Restart

You finally got to the boss! Yes ! This is your moment...unfortuanately you died yet again

Restart

You finally beat the boss and advance to the next level, but what is this ?! All the enemies are different, the first enemies killed you again...at this point you rage, brake your keyboard, delete the game and never try to play it again, cuz you are a scrub.

This game reminds me of a few great games from a long time ago; mega man, castlevania, and demon's crest. This game can be quite challenging as it is simple. The game seems to be more of test of your memory rather than skill; although skill is definatly required...or should I say patience.

I must admit, when I first played this game I didin't realize there was a sword attack without having to push down while using spear chuck attack. After say about 20 or so deaths I started to use the sword attack.After about 50 or so deaths i finally beat the first stage.I'd have to say patience, and perhaps a good night sleep definatly helped.

A fun challenging game that requires you to sit down for a while and commit to beating a level, which is not often shown in most games nowadays. Definitely worth it if you want a challenging old style game that makes you feel like a viking badass

This is indeed a beautiful game. Graphics are great, animations too. The music and ambience are both good too.

Then, why I do not recommend this game?

Because of it's gameplay. And not because it's difficult, that's not the point. The problem here is the "fake" difficulty.

The ONLY reason to play this game for more than 30 mins it's not the story (there is none), it's not the graphics or the music: it's the gameplay. But it lacks any depth, it's about memorizing patterns, dying and repeating over and over until you get things right. It's not difficult because the game has good IA, or because enemies are unpredictable.

It's difficult because we're not used to this kind of games, and after dying 20 times and reaching the second checkpoint full geared you realize that it's not challenging, it's boring, plain and simple.

If you like to memorize patterns and play for hours without really any kind of motivation except to complete a game so you can tell your friends "hey, u know what? I finished volgarr the viking, i'm such a pro player", then this game is for you.

If you're looking for a game with a story, with good IA, or with a real challenge that goes beyond dying and repeating the same thing over and over, then this is not for you.

If Ghouls and Ghosts and Actraiser had a baby, and they had a twisted uncle called Donkey Kong Country, then that's where Volgarr came from.

A new game done in the style of old, it really is quite a gem. Simplistic as can be in terms of gameplay, though that is not to say that learning how to control Volgarr is not an obstacle with a nice skill ceiling. Some may consider his controls rather rigid, but if you learn how to use him, he's fluid and most importantly, much like Ghouls and Ghosts, very fair. Remember guys, sometimes you have to jump back a bit before you jump forward to get to where you want to go -- little ghouls and ghosts tip for those not used to this jumping system.

From a level design perspective, I personally quite enjoy both paths of the game. However, I think overall the Valkyrie path has superior level design. The crystal path suffers a bit from too many enemies and not enough platforming, but, that may be your thing. Enemies are in and of themselves obstacles, but the game is at it's best when you have to manage both at the same time. So learn to Volgarr well and experience the bliss of the Valkyrie path.

The soundtrack is pretty good, but not good enough to warrant listening to it beyond your 50th hour of playing -- though I think most won't play it that much, so you're fine!

From a replayability perspective, the game doesn't offer much variety once you complete both paths. There are no alternative ways to play, so, once you've beat it, you can either stop there, or grit your teeth and become the best Volgarr player you can be. As a speedgame, Volgarr is simple, but very skillful and both a joy to play and to watch. It may not look particularly "fast", but, trust me, there's always time to save. So if speedrunning is your thing, by all means pick it up and grace the leaderboard -- please, I seriously wish more people ran this game.

RISE WARRIOR!

--

From a guy who has too many hours in this game, with only many more to come. (And, I should note, I have the GoG version of this game as well, so... there's more time devoted to this than just what steam wants to tell you.)

- Inconsistent difficulty curve: the first two levels feel like the most difficult ones, then the game gets considerably easier afterwards, the boss fights are also relatively easy compared to the levels- The purposely designed controls (such as fixed jumping) leads to the occasional cheap death. [Note: This point is more of a nit-pick than a criticism of the game, the game is intentionally designed to emulate such occurrences.]

Verdict

“I’m not a big fan of retro games generally; with the lack of checkpoints/quick-saving, limited controls and very short gameplay. But this game managed to make these points a non-issue, and the game was more enjoyable because of it. A very solid retro platformer. You either get good, or get rekt.”